Rachel Maddow Examines the Supreme Court DOMA Arguments: VIDEO

Last night, Rachel Maddow parsed the fascinating Supreme Court arguments over DOMA, highlighting the newsworthy moments and the coined phrases, "skim-milk marriage" for one. She also welcomed GLAD attorney Mary Bonauto, who fought another high-profile DOMA case that was under consideration by SCOTUS but was rejected in favor of the Edie Windsor case because Justice Kagan had to recuse herself.

Plus, a bonus segment on the Republican sea change on marriage equality.

Comments

Roberta Kaplan just strapped on Lawrence and rammed it right up Roberts' lawhole.

Posted by: And he liked it. | Mar 28, 2013 9:09:39 AM

Little known fact: Paul Clement had a role in the original Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Posted by: AGood Evening Fräulein | Mar 28, 2013 9:15:38 AM

Just to be clear, Justice Ginsburg coined the skim milk phrase. She asked:

“Mr. Clement,if we are totally for the States’ decision that there is a marriage between two people, for the federal government then to come in to say no joint return, no marital deduction, no Social Security benefits; your spouse is very sick but you can’t get leave; people—if that set of attributes, one might well ask, What kind of marriage is this?” Ginsburg answered her own question. Under DOMA, she said, there were “two kinds of marriage; the full marriage, and then this sort of skim-milk marriage.”

Posted by: Joe in CT | Mar 28, 2013 9:19:33 AM

Does anyone know where we can get a copy of the complete audio with those court reporter drawings? I saw a reference to them in another thread, but no link. I'd love to watch the whole things that way.

@David: I listened to the audio recordings of both cases (twice), and the somewhat surprising thought that occurred to me is that I see why Roberts is so opposed to having cameras in the courtroom. Actually observing what goes on demystifies the process and exposes Supreme Court arguments as farce. Roberts, in particular, gave a really dumb analogy about making a child call someone else a friend, and how that changes the definition of friendship--THIS is supposed to be high-caliber intellect?

I did find it interesting that several of the justices seemingly wanted to fault the Obama administration for not defending laws the found unconstitutional, even though that is the administrations 'job'. But then, instead of enforcing the Constitution, the justices are looking for any backdoor to sliver out of making a ruling that asserts equality or that protects the rights of BGLTs. The only thing surprising is how transparent the hypocrisy is. Justices, DO YOUR JOB!

Posted by: Wizard of Oz | Mar 28, 2013 10:47:55 AM

@David

www.supremecourt.gov

Oral & transpript (pdf) for listening and downloading.

Posted by: JONES | Mar 28, 2013 11:12:26 AM

I can fix this federalism/equal protection quandary for the justices.

1) The Federal Government MUST NOT interfere with states' rights in a way that CREATES inequalities (DOMA).